His research in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island found what many grouse hunters with dogs may have already concluded: deep uncrusted snow also offers grouse protection from ground predators such as bobcats and foxes (and hunting dogs), presumably because the snow inhibits scent.

(My agent explained to me the other day what men are now calling "bobcats," or girls in the age range of 22 to 27 who are brazen and flippant toward men, until they have to be nice to them when they become "pumas" at 28 to 35.

Our house sat in a redwood forest populated by bobcats, mushrooms, and what my German-speaking grandmother thrillingly referred to as Wildschweinen, “wild pigs,” disappointingly called “boar” in English.